few steps before collapsing into a heap and bursting into pitiful tears.
“Lionel!” David rushed forward, sinking to a crouch at Lionel’s side the way Lionel had done for him when he thought David had been shot. Neither of them had been pierced by bullets, but they had both been wounded by the whole experience.
Lionel twisted into David’s waiting arms, sobbing uncontrollably and shaking. David closed his arms tightly around him, cradling him close.
“Ssh, ssh, love, it’s all right. It’s over.” David smoothed his hand over Lionel’s head, not caring who saw the two of them locked together in such an intimate position. “What’s done is done.”
“It’s so unfair,” Lionel sobbed before gulping in a few breaths and burying his face against David’s shoulder. “I can’t get back the lives he stole.”
“None of us can,” David tried to soothe him. “But you did your best. Think of all the children we’ve saved by thwarting the ring when we did.”
Lionel nodded against David’s shoulder, breathing hard. He pulled away slightly, straightening his back and squaring his shoulders as best he could in an effort to regain some semblance of dignity. “Do you know,” he began with an attempt at sounding above it all, “I didn’t think I would be half this emotional about bringing an end to Chisolm’s reign of terror. It’s incredibly disconcerting.”
David couldn’t help but laugh as he brushed the tears off of Lionel’s cheeks with his thumbs and clasped the sides of his face. “You’re allowed to be disconcerted after such a traumatic experience,” he said, going so far as to steal a quick kiss, regardless of who was looking on.
“Well, I don’t like it,” Lionel said, gently shaking David off and pushing himself to stand. David stood with him, helping Lionel to his feet. Lionel made a disgusted noise. “I hate making a spectacle of myself like this.”
“Nonsense.” David grinned from ear to ear, brimming with love and affection as he brushed Lionel’s suit off. “You adore making a spectacle of yourself whenever possible.”
“Yes, but not because I’ve transformed into a blubbering idiot for no good reason,” Lionel protested, attempting to straighten his hair by brushing his hands through it.
“You have a very good reason, love,” David said, squeezing his arm and staring hard into his eyes. “I only wish I had known how badly Chisolm had wronged you sooner. I would have broken into his house and slit his throat in the dead of night if I had.”
“No, you wouldn’t have,” Lionel said with a flat look, returning to his old self, but with a look of resolution in his eyes that hadn’t been there before, as if a chapter of his life had been closed and a new one had begun. “You cannot slit a man’s throat without getting blood everywhere, and you abhor the sight of blood.”
“Who said I can’t stand the sight of blood?” David protested, taking Lionel’s hand and walking with him to where Lord Clerkenwell had moved to the path and was speaking to a pair of Hull police officers and several men who had likely watched the scene unfold. David noticed a stream of people heading down to the beach as well, likely to retrieve Chisolm’s body.
“Darling,” Lionel said, pursing his lips for a moment. “You cut your finger while opening a letter a few weeks ago and nearly fainted. I had to apply the plaster because you’d gone too woozy to do it yourself.”
David shrugged. “Perhaps I just wanted you to lavish me with attention and bind my wounds,” he teased.
“I wouldn’t put it past you.” Lionel rolled his eyes, but the gesture was accompanied by a grin that told David that, at last, everything would be all right.
Chapter 21
The Concord Theater was as busy in the afternoon a week after Chisolm’s death as it normally was before a performance, and Niall Cristofori’s new musical wouldn’t open for another few weeks at least. Lionel was fascinated by the buzz of rehearsal and the bustle of sets being constructed, costumes sewn, and scenery being painted as he and David were shown into the backstage area by the no-nonsense stage manager.
“No wonder so many of our sort take to the theater,” he told David as they dodged out of the way of a shirtless, muscular young man carrying a load of lumber over one, well-formed shoulder. “There’s so much to see and do here.”
“Kindly keep your eyes in your head,” David said with a wry grin, pushing Lionel on toward the hallway